Tag: cacti

What happened to Pretty Little Cactus?

Well, let’s talk about it! I started my blog in June about succulent and cactus gardening. It’s a passion of mine, and I began getting a following on Instagram from my pictures featuring my efforts. They seriously are the coolest, most attractive plants! However, I am not just a blogger, I am a writer. Writing about just one topic can be very confining to the creative mind. From as far back as I can remember, I’ve been all over the place in terms of my ideas, interests, loves, and hobbies, and my blog started to reflect that. It’s pretty much been evolving and growing ever since! I started to realize that as much as I adore “Pretty Little Cactus”, the name was becoming more and more irrelevant based on my wrioting topics.

Welcome, Elle at Home!

Most of my posts are centered around my home life with my family (and my plants) because let’s face it, I’m a homebody! Elle has been my secret alter ego for years, which is the letter L(acey) in name form, as well as French for the word “She”. For those of you who know me personally, you know that J’aime la langue française! I was awake around 2 am one morning due to a random bought of insomnia, and the name just came to me. While “Pretty Little Cactus” will always be special in my heart, “Elle at Home” is ME, and it just fit.

I felt that if I want to have this creative outlet to write and grow with, it was time to make a little change. Blogging has brought me so much happiness for these past six months, and I can’t wait to look back in six more months to see what my year of blogging looks like as a whole. Oh and by the way, a note to future me: stop forgetting to take your vitamins! Current me is sick right now because I’ve been slacking on my essential oils and supplements. Anywho, happy reading friends. Thank you so much for sticking around on this journey with me!

Our Day at Florida Cactus Inc.

I’ve always assumed that because I don’t live in California, I won’t have access to big nurseries and really cool varieties of succulents and cacti, which makes me seriously SAD. Enter my good pal Google, and I find Florida Cactus, Inc! YOU GUYS-it’s amazing. About 30ish minutes outside of Orlando, it’s off in the Florida bush, which is really beautiful country if you ask me. I took my favorite gal, my daughter Laila, and we went on an adventure! Everyone say “Hi Laila”!

The biggest Blue Agave I’ve ever seen!

Laila loves gardening and is super excited to start her own little gardens on our property. She is just like me; enthusiastic, hyper, inquisitive, and loves plants – The perfect succy shopping partner in crime buddy! There are six greenhouses to shop from (maybe more) and we went to town!

The staff was super sweet, and let us keep all of the fallen leaves that we found. Let me tell you, my girl is a succulent pup bloodhound! She kept finding them in the dirt under the benches, and many of them had roots or babies growing already!

Teensy baby Kalanchoe!

Succulent babies everywhere!

At the end of the day, we took home a great haul and Laila made her own little arrangement to keep in her North facing window in her room. A day well spent!!

“Why did you choose the name Pretty Little Cactus?”

I’ve been getting this question from friends and family recently, and I never know how to answer without sounding angsty. Of course there is the obvious; I love cacti and succulents and wanted to document my gardening and cultivating efforts! I think they’re lovely and very, very pretty. But the whole truth is, Pretty Little Cactus is me! It’s you! Maybe it’s someone you know, and I’m betting it’s many someones that you don’t know as well.

Aren’t they darling?

The Pretty Little Cactus is…well, pretty. It’s small. It seems unassuming and looks like it may even be sweet! But get too close with bad intentions, and you’ll find out too late that it’s thorns are very real. Behind that cute exterior, the Pretty Little Cactus has character and substance, and commands a certain amount of respect. Having good looks is nice and all, but what I value in myself and those that I love is what’s inside. Strength of character, substance, and true decency; that’s what makes up Pretty Little Cactus!